Is the queueing happening at morning rush only, or evening too? Went through last night around 6 and it was pretty empty, but still a nightmare to get through (partner with me said she never wants to do that drive-thru again).

When I've been there a couple times around lunch the queue has always been to the end of the parking lot but never actually in the street. I go by here every morning but never thought to look until this morning. I figure Friday might be a busier than usual day to buy a morning coffee though.

Woolworth’s long-term land lease expired last year, giving the building owner the full go-ahead to move in an entirely new direction. By next summer, it plans to have the site ready for office tenants--

I don't get into downtown St Paul often, is this project moving forward?

I work in the Golden Rule Building (directly adjacent to this project) and can confirm this is definitely under way. There is a large dumpster outside, the windows are now covered, construction entrance signage, and there is a posted rendering of the project with a completion date listed (I think sometime in 2018, but can't recall precisely).

I don't get into downtown St Paul often, is this project moving forward?

I work in the Golden Rule Building (directly adjacent to this project) and can confirm this is definitely under way. There is a large dumpster outside, the windows are now covered, construction entrance signage, and there is a posted rendering of the project with a completion date listed (I think sometime in 2018, but can't recall precisely).

Also work in Golden Rule and the images on site are different than posted above. See this page:

Per an announcement from the St. Paul Planning and Economic Development department, "Proposals to demolish the building or to repurpose it for housing will not be considered.”

Mayor Chris Coleman elaborated on that in a statement, noting that the city's downtown has seen "tremendous growth in housing and entertainment options … but now is the time to focus on accelerating job growth."

This is more reason why I'd refuse to support Coleman for governor. He has such an outdated way of thinking. With all due respect, St. Paul, you need whatever you can get to start filling up your vacant lots and surface parking. Your downtown needs to deal with the blocks of missing teeth before worrying about what type of land use you want and where. And if you grow your downtown population by 20,000-30,000 then maybe more businesses would be interested in Downtown.

Per an announcement from the St. Paul Planning and Economic Development department, "Proposals to demolish the building or to repurpose it for housing will not be considered.”

Mayor Chris Coleman elaborated on that in a statement, noting that the city's downtown has seen "tremendous growth in housing and entertainment options … but now is the time to focus on accelerating job growth."

This is more reason why I'd refuse to support Coleman for governor. He has such an outdated way of thinking. With all due respect, St. Paul, you need whatever you can get to start filling up your vacant lots and surface parking. Your downtown needs to deal with the blocks of missing teeth before worrying about what type of land use you want and where. And if you grow your downtown population by 20,000-30,000 then maybe more businesses would be interested in Downtown.

I personally say let the quasi free-market choose what goes into that building.

However, from what I understand according to multiple sources, is that businesses ARE interested in downtown St. Paul, but there isn't enough contiguous office space for them. Hence the conversion of the old Woolworth store into office space.

Contiguous in terms of SF per floor plate? Or contiguous in terms of SF across an entire building? With the old Ecolab buildings and the Cray space in Galtier vacated, it seems like there's plenty of large office spaces available. This location is not as prime as either of those locations, and seems like it would be a prime residential conversion next to Pedro Park and across from Lunds.

Contiguous in terms of SF per floor plate? Or contiguous in terms of SF across an entire building? With the old Ecolab buildings and the Cray space in Galtier vacated, it seems like there's plenty of large office spaces available. This location is not as prime as either of those locations, and seems like it would be a prime residential conversion next to Pedro Park and across from Lunds.

Isn't this part of why Cray left? Lack of contiguous office space at the highest level?

Isn't this part of why Cray left? Lack of contiguous office space at the highest level?

That's the official word. There was also the small matter of it raining in the office rather regularly. And the flood that took out the machine room. And the fact that the Green Line was entirely constructed from scratch before the elevators taken out by said flood were fully operational.

I just noticed the CP Market in Phalen Village is gone - - demolished. Does anyone know what's going on at that site? (and further, where online can I check to see permits issued, or something like that, for St Paul?)